Sounds good
by Fafsernir
Summary: Ianto'd stopped listening to Jack speaking. Had he said something wrong?


_Soo, eeh, I got an ask on Tumblr (mel-writes-and-recs) for autistic!Ianto having a meltdown and Jack helping him. I've been wanting to write something with autistic!Ianto for a while now, but I never dared as I don't have any expertise in this and I certainly didn't want to portray something wrongly. So I don't know if that's a good representation and if it's not, please do tell me, I really don't mean to harm anybody. If you have advice for me to write more of autistic!Ianto (I quite like this headcanon, to be honest) and wouldn't mind reading more yourself, don't hesitate to come forward :)_

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Jack wasn't sure when Ianto had stopped listening to him, but it was pretty obvious now. His eyes were looking at nothing and he had stopped talking. Jack finished his story about the last alien they had caught with a big laugh that was only answered by a small smile by Ianto, as if Jack's laugh had showed him which reaction to have. Jack sighed on his plate and paid for dinner.

"Wanna go?"

"Sure," Ianto answered, pursing his lips, his eyes still not looking at him, or anything.

They stood and got ready, Ianto still absent and Jack trying to figure out what was wrong. Was it about Ianto's family? Was he tired? Was he growing bored of Jack? Had Jack said something wrong? He had chuckled about Ianto who had filed a perfectly written report twice instead of once, and how he had read the thing all over again because he liked the way Ianto wrote – and he'd been too tired to realise it was the same before he was halfway through it. Then he had talked about the team, then their last mission. Had he said something he shouldn't have about the team? That wouldn't surprise him, he often seemed to be saying wrong stuff he didn't mean.

"You wanna do something after?" Ianto shrugged. "You wanna head home?" Ianto shrugged again. "Or back at the hub?" Another shrug. "What do you want to do?"

This time Ianto stopped walking, looking in disarray. "I don't know. Dunno."

"Okay," Jack smiled, not sure of what they would do but trying to think about something Ianto would like.

He walked a couple of seconds before realising that Ianto hadn't followed. He was just standing there, his lips trembling – it was cold outside – and his hands tensed, as if frozen in half a fist. Jack ran his hand on his face, checking his forehead, then soothing his hair.

"Ianto, you okay?"

Ianto didn't answer, or if he did, Jack didn't notice. He had just remembered something.

As perfect as Ianto's file looked, freshly out of Torchwood One, Jack had still checked him. It was a pretty good job – that was also why Jack had eventually wanted him in his team – Ianto had deleted anything remotely bad about him. But Jack wasn't as bad as some members of Torchwood would like him to be – or had thought he was – and he'd managed to find things Ianto had tried to bury. Had people refused to hire him for that? That was the only explanation Jack had for Ianto wanting to hide the fact that he had been diagnosed autistic. Jack didn't like the fact that his employee hid something like that from him but he'd never told him he knew. He had read everything he could about Ianto, and even talked to some people, though. So he knew what could help Ianto.

And he always carried a gel bracelet on him, just in case. He wasn't sure it was a meltdown, he wasn't sure still Ianto had meltdowns – or maybe he just had never noticed – but in case, Jack put the wristband in Ianto's hand. Ianto seemed surprised of what was suddenly in his hands, but quickly focused on it, letting Jack drag him somewhere.

Jack brought him near the Torchwood entrance, leaning against the railway, watching the sea. Well, he wasn't really watching the sea, he was rubbing Ianto's back gently, looking at him without staring too much, as to not make him uncomfortable, but enough to look out for any bad reaction from his touch. Ianto didn't seem to mind.

Jack was thinking. Was it the remark about the fact that Ianto had sent two reports? He didn't see what else it could be, because that was the only thing Ianto had never done before. He was always so good at filing and reports, and filing reports. Jack wished he could take it back, but he wasn't sure apologising for this was a good idea – it would only remind Ianto of it, after all. So he just waited, sometimes talking, more and more when he noticed that Ianto seemed to like it. He talked about routine, because he had figured out Ianto worked with routines a lot – for someone working for Torchwood, he didn't know how he could take it as a lot of unpredictable things seemed to occur every two days. He respected Ianto greatly, to be honest.

"Since when have you known?" Ianto asked softly after a long while.

Jack hadn't realised he was feeling better, but he smiled, still rubbing Ianto's back. He didn't bother answering, and Ianto shook his head, handing him back the bracelet.

"Hold on onto that one," he nodded then pointed to the Torchwood entrance. "You wanna spend the night here working on something instead of not sleeping but being bored?"

"Sounds good," Ianto shrugged, following Jack. He muttered a thanks that Jack pretended not to hear.


End file.
